Commonwealth v. Muntz

630 A.2d 51, 428 Pa. Super. 99, 1993 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2747
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 23, 1993
Docket1797
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 630 A.2d 51 (Commonwealth v. Muntz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Muntz, 630 A.2d 51, 428 Pa. Super. 99, 1993 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2747 (Pa. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

KELLY, Judge.

Appellant, Robert Muntz, asks us to determine whether the trial court erred in denying his oral request to withdraw his guilty plea, made subsequent to initial sentencing but prior to resentencing. We hold that appellant’s request for withdrawal must be examined under the post-sentencing standard of “manifest injustice,” and affirm the judgment of sentence.

The salient facts and procedural history of this case may be summarized as follows. On February 14,1991, appellant pled guilty to seven counts of robbery 1 and two counts of simple assault. 2 On May 22,1991, the trial court sentenced appellant to two (2) consecutive terms of four (4) to eight (8) years and a number of concurrent sentences.

The trial court denied appellant’s motion to modify sentence. Appellant filed a timely appeal from his judgment of sentence on June 19, 1991. On March 11, 1992, this Court vacated the first sentence and remanded the matter to the trial court for resentencing.

The trial court held appellant’s resentencing hearing on April 15, 1992. At the hearing, prior to resentencing, appellant orally requested permission to withdraw his guilty plea. The trial court denied his request and imposed a sentence of two (2) consecutive terms of three (3) to six (6) years, five (5) concurrent terms of three (3) to six (6) years, and four (4) *102 terms of one (1) year probation to run consecutively to any parole which may follow from the sentence of incarceration.

In accordance with Rule 321 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure, appellant moved to challenge the validity of his guilty plea. 3 On April 24, 1992, the trial court denied this motion and re-sentenced appellant accordingly. This timely appeal followed.

On appeal, appellant contends that his oral request to withdraw his guilty plea should be considered as a presentence motion for withdrawal. Moreover, appellant asserts that, pursuant to Pa.R.Crim.P. 320, 4 the trial court should have allowed the withdrawal under the pre-sentencing standard of “fair and just reason.” Appellant also maintains that the trial court erred by not making an inquiry into his claim of being influenced by mind-altering drugs. Lastly, appellant proposes that the trial court should have granted the withdrawal of the guilty plea because the withdrawal would not substantially prejudice the Commonwealth. We disagree.

A significant distinction exists between a pre-sentence request to withdraw a guilty plea and a post-sentence request to do so. Commonwealth v. Shaffer, 498 Pa. 342, 446 A.2d 591 (1982).

*103 The standard for allowing withdrawal of a guilty plea prior to sentence was articulated in Commonwealth v. Forbes, 450 Pa. 185, 191, 299 A.2d 268, 271 (1973) wherein we quoted with approval the following:

“Before sentence, the court in its discretion may allow the defendant to withdraw his plea for any fair and just reason unless the prosecution has been substantially prejudiced by reliance upon the defendant’s plea.” ABA Project on Minimum Standards for Criminal Justice, Standards Relating to Pleas of Guilty ...
Because the plea involves the simultaneous waiver of so many constitutional rights, a request to withdraw prior to sentencing is “liberally allowed.” Id., 450 Pa. at 190, 299 A.2d at 271; see also Commonwealth v. McLaughlin, 469 Pa. 407, 366 A.2d 238 (1976).
When considering a petition to withdraw a guilty plea submitted to a trial court after sentencing, however, it is well-established that “a showing of prejudice on the order of manifest injustice,” Commonwealth v. Starr, 450 Pa. 485, 490, 301 A.2d 592, 595 (1973), is required before withdrawal is properly justified. (Citations omitted). Post-sentencing attempts to withdraw a guilty plea must sustain this more substantial burden because of the recognition that a plea withdrawal can be used as a sentence-testing device. Commonwealth v. Starr, 450 Pa. at 489, 301 A.2d at 594. If a plea of guilty could be retracted with ease after sentencing, the accused might be encouraged to plea guilty to test the weight of potential punishment, and withdraw the plea if the sentence were unexpectedly severe.

Id. 498 Pa. at 345-46, 446 A.2d at 593.

To support his claim that his oral request should be examined under the pre-sentence standard of “fair and just reason,” appellant relies on Commonwealth v. Carr, 375 Pa.Super. 168, 543 A.2d 1232 (1988). In Carr, toward the beginning of his first sentencing hearing, the appellant orally moved to withdraw his plea before his sentence was imposed. Id. at 171, 543 A.2d at 1233. We held:

*104 While a written motion must be filed within 10 days to challenge the denial of a motion to withdraw a plea, Pa. R.Crim.P. 321(a), a written motion is not a prerequisite to a valid exercise of a trial court’s discretion to permit or direct the withdrawal of a plea under Pa.R.Crim.P. 320 ... Consequently, we do not adopt the trial court’s alternative reasoning that the post-sentencing standard for withdrawing a guilty plea must be applied because a formal written motion to withdraw the plea was not filed until after sentence was imposed. Though not filed prior to sentencing, appellant’s motion was nonetheless made in open court prior to sentence and as such must be reviewed under the pre-sentence standard.

Id. at 171-72, 543 A.2d at 1233 (emphasis in original). See also Pa.R.Crim.P. 9020(a) (all motions, challenges, and applications or requests for an order or relief shall be by written motion, except as otherwise provided in these rules, or when made in open-court during a trial or hearing).

Although appellant, in the instant case, made his request in open court during a hearing and filed a motion to challenge the validity of his guilty plea in a timely fashion, Carr is not analogous to the instant case because, here, appellant petitioned to withdraw his guilty plea only after sentence had been imposed for the first time. Even though appellant made his request before his resentencing, this does not negate the fact that appellant failed to request allowance to withdraw his plea before his original sentencing.

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Bluebook (online)
630 A.2d 51, 428 Pa. Super. 99, 1993 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2747, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-muntz-pasuperct-1993.